Republican Strategist says we should “Bomb the Hell” out of the Middle East

On the latest episode of Real Time with Bill Maher, the panel discussed the fact that Iran seems to be the only country willing to fight the Islamic State (ISIS) with “boots on the ground.”

“When are we going to admit that our ally is Iran?” Maher asked his guests. “Or would that mess up the simple thought ‘Iran bad?”

Republican strategist Mercedes Schlapp said that America cannot trust Iran because there are people there who chant “Death to the West,” and that we were “barely going after ISIS.”

Maher then told Schlapp and Former Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA) that they both had a fundamental misunderstanding of the Middle East.

“The best thing we can do is to just stay out of it,” said Maher. “Can’t you see that they’re having a war between themselves? If we want them to use all their energy, not on attacking us, but on attacking each other — they’re doing it!”

“I say bomb the hell out of them,” interrupted Schlapp, banging her hands on the table and talking over boos from the crowd. “Bomb the hell out of them!”

Schlapp’s willingness to launch American into yet another armed conflict in the Middle East is emblematic of the entire GOP. Regardless of the cost — in money and American and innocent Middle Eastern lives, their response to everything is simply to go to war.